Case Study: Meditation on Exhaustion by Tom Taylor

In this video, we’ll use an example from the York sculpture collection to summarise some of the lessons we’ve covered in the previous activities on the history and theories of modern sculpture.

This is also an example of how we can combine our direct encounter with theoretical contexts. This reveals an important and unique aspect of art history: how to transform a direct experience of artwork into a verbal or written description.

Art history relies on direct encounters with works of art, actually going and seeing objects in person. Art historians have to deal with artworks firsthand and in person.

However, this section will help you to combine the direct visual analysis skills we’ve developed so far with written critical texts and images.